Sunday, 8 April 2012

More Walking–More Ice

Today we remain at the NZMCA POP at Franz Josef and we will walk in to see the Franz Josef Glacier.   A very popular attraction, despite a large car park there was not much space left and a constant stream of people were entering the track or returning from viewing the glacier.   An easy 10 minute bush walk to start for the 1hr 30min return journey to the viewing place.   Nice view of the glacier from the end of the bush track.

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The track is reasonably easy through the valley and is well maintained, the only disconcerting thing is that you can see how far you have to walk along to the glacier !

A good photo stop on the way is a couple of waterfalls which are just 5-10 meters beside the track, after a bit of rain it would be spectacular but was still nice to look at.

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On we went until we finally reached the viewing point about 500 meters from the glacier.

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Franz Josef Glacier

We were intrigued to see lumps of glacier ice in the river below the glacier and while photographing the one perched on a rock another large lump came to a stop just below us.

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Ice Anyone ?

A great view of the glacier and we then set off back down the track to the car park.   It was amazing to see the numbers of people stretched all the way along the track into the distance.

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Down the Valley

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